AT WORK
A rose makes for rosier outlook, increased productivity at work
By Dana Knight
Indianapolis Star
Brain block at work? Try a lily. Not keeping up with those files? Sniff a rose.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
This is bloomin' strange news straight from a study at a respected university: Fresh flowers and live plants in your office, on your desk or on your computer make you a more productive worker.
Productivity goes where your plant grows: One study says you're more creative when surrounded by growing things.
Not a lick of nature's beauty sits anywhere near my desk. No daffodils. No carnations. No shrinking violets (well, there used to be one, but he left).
I read the study conducted by a research team at Texas A&M University and promptly opened the flaps of my half-empty box of Frosted Mini-Wheats, hoping the smell would waft into my aura.
Wheat is a plant, right?
Roger Ulrich, a behavioral scientist and lead researcher on the project, says I might be in trouble.
"Flowers are not just embellishments," says Ulrich, who is also the director of the Center for Health Systems and Design at Texas A&M. "They shouldn't be dismissed as mere luxuries or things that are nice to have."
No. Flowers are a sure-fire way to put workers in a better mood, bolster creativity, increase output and inspire revolutionary ideas, he says.
Ulrich and his team spent eight months exploring the link between workplace productivity and the presence of flowers and plants.
The 101 participants were asked to perform creative problem-solving tasks in three office environments.
The first was like mine — bare and boring.
The second surrounded workers with art and sculpture.
The third used flowers and plants, including a $35 vase on the desk with eight fresh-cut flowers and two larger plants sitting a few feet away.
"There were not a lot of plants. This was not like we were putting people in a botanical," Ulrich says. It was an environment the team concocted with a florist so that it would be easy for average workers to replicate.
And they will want to.
Results of the study overwhelmingly showed that plants — more than anything else — put people in a better mood, and that people in a pleasant mood are more productive.
Researchers measured workers' ability to generate ideas. "Both the quantity and quality of ideas improved as moods improved," Ulrich says.
Men, in fact, produced 30 percent more ideas with plants than without them.
A smart manager would gladly fork over a few bucks to sprinkle the office with flowers and see profits grow.
Conversely, the study found that when offices have no flowers or plants, moods worsened and workers were more negative. And performance nose-dived.
"Can you think of any economic activity in a modern economy that doesn't rest ultimately on the success of good ideas?" Ulrich asks. "Flowers have an important practical use in possibly enhancing the company's bottom line."
Aboutflowers.com bought the idea and quickly posted the study's findings on its Web site.
Why, exactly, would a flower or plant have this effect?
The explanation has to do with 2 million years of evolution. Flowers inherently represent and signal better habitat, better availability of water and better availability of food.
In other words, when a plant is nearby, our moods improve because there is a better chance we would find an apple or a peach just around the nearest bush.
Which means artificial flowers won't work.
And neither will Mini-Wheats.
